Socialist Labor Party of America

The Socialist Labor Party of America (SLP) is a socialist political party in the United States which was founded in 1876, making it the second-oldest socialist political party in the world. It was founded as the Workingmen's Party of the United States in 1876, and its ideology was influenced by Daniel De Leon, who, after 1890, used its English-language The Weekly People paper to expand its popularity beyond its largely German-speaking membership. In 1899, his opponents left the party to form the Socialist Party of America. De Leon died in 1914, and, after his death, the party criticized both the Soviet Union and the Socialist Party's reformism, becoming isolated from the majority of the American left. Its support increased in the late 1940s but declined again in the 1950s; it again experienced a brief spike in support during the late 1960s but subsequently declined. The party stopped nominating presidential candidates in 1976 and closed its national office in 2008.